Method and means for manufacturing corrugated plastic laminates



Oct.20,- 1953 D. GONDA ETAL 2,655,978

METHOD AND MEANS FOR MANUFACTURING CORRUGATED PLASTIC LAMINATES Filed Dec. 23, 1950 19 Sheets-Sheet 1 Inventors. Des/re Gonda.

Attorneys Oct. 20, 1953 D. GONDA ETAL METHOD AND MEANS FOR MANUFACTURING CORRUGATED PLASTIC LAMINATES Filed Dec. 25, 1950 19 Sheets-Sheet 2 [hue n tors. Des-[re G nc/a. ed An5e//Hoc/5re.

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Oct. 20, 1953 D. GONDA ET AL 2,655,978

METHOD AND MEANS FOR MANUFACTURING CORRUGATED PLASTIC LAMINATES File'd Dec.. 23, 1950 l9 Sheets-Sheet 4 F/G; 7o.

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Oct. 20, 1953 D. GONDA ETAL 2,655,978

METHOD AND MEANS FOR MANUFACTURING CORRUGATED PLASTIC LAMINATES Filed Dec. 23, 1950 19 Sheets-Sheet '7 Inventors Des/re Gpn o'er.

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Oct. 20, 1953 D GONDA ET AL 2,655,978

METHOD ANf) MEANS FOR MANUFACTURING CORRUGATED PLASTIC LAMINATES Filed Dec. 23, 1950 19 Sheets-Sheet 9 /a7 /74 we indent-arm Des/re Gonda. v Afr-2d Anse/l Hop g Attorneys.

Oct. 20, 1953 D. GONDA ETAL METHOD AND MEANS FOR MANUFACTURING CORRUGATED PLASTIC LAMINATEIS Fi'led Dec. 2:5, 1950 19 Sheets-Sheet 10 m5 m9 b mm m vo mww 260w 9v wvw w mm k WW km w WOW

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Attqmeys Oct. 20, 1953 D. GONDA ETAL METHOD AND MEANS FOR MANUFACTURING CORRUGATED PLASTIC LAMINATES l9 Sheets-Sheet .11

Filed Dec. 25, 1950 Oct. 20, 1953 D. GONDA ET AL 55,978

METHOD AND MEANS FOR MANUFACTURING CORRUGATED PLASTIC LAMINATES Filed Dec. 25, 1950 19 Sheets-Sheet l2 1 Inventors Des/re Gondcr.

itomeys Oct. 20, 1953 D. GONDA ET AL METHOD AND MEANS FOR MANUFACTURING CORRUGATED PLASTIC LAMINATES Filed Dec. 23, 1950 19 Sheets-Sheet l4 D. GONDA ETAL METHOD AND MEANS FOR MANUFACTURING Oct. 20, 1953 2,655,978

' CORRUGATED PLASTIC LAMINA'IES l9 Sheets-Sheet 15 Filed Dec. 23, 1950 @w obi N I nventord Desi/"e GONG/G. Ayrea Ansel/15 04742.-

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Patented Oct. 20, 1953 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE METHOD AND MEANS FOR MANUFACTUR- IN G CORRUGATED PLASTIC LAMINATES Application December 23, 1950, Serial No, 202,459 In Great Britain December 29, 1949 21 Claims- This invention concerns a method and means for manufacturing corrugated plastic laminates, and the products of such manufacture, an object of the invention being to produce corrugated plastic laminates which can .be used in place of corrugated metal, asbestos, and like sheets, plates or panels in, for example, the building industry. Another object of the invention is to provide corrugated laminates which are resistant to corrosion in acid atmospheres, fire resistant, vermin proof, windand weather-proof, and which have a high strength/weight ratio, whilst a still further object of the invention is to enable corrugated laminates to be produced in attractive colours, such as, for example, pastel shades.

, More particularly, the object of the invention. is to produce the said corrugated plastic laminates each from an assembly of superposed sheets of fibrous material such as, for example, paper, of an initially relatively flexible form and which bear or are impregnated with (and all hereinafter referred to inclusively as being impregnated with) an uncured thermo-setting plastic or resin, hereinafter inclusively referred to as thermo-setting resin, the said sheets being, during manufacture of the corrugated laminate therefrom, heated and pressed to shape the sheets to the required final corrugated form and to consolidate the sheets of the assembly and cure or set the thermo-setting resin contained in the assembly.

According to this invention there is provided a method of manufacturing a corrugated plastic laminate from fibrous sheet material impregnated with a thermo-setting resin, such method comprising pre-forming the fibrous sheet material to a pleated or preliminarily corrugated form approximately corresponding to the final corrugated form to be given to the plastic laminate, assembling a number (sufficient to form a laminate of the required thickness) of sheets of the said pre-formed material in superposed relationship and then compressing the laminate assembly thus produced between co-operating heated moulds having corrugated surfaces (whose corrugations conform in their dimensions and shape to those to be produced in the finished plastic laminate) to impart the required final corrugated form to the laminate assembly and to consolidate the sheets, of which the assembly is composed, into a single integral corrugated laminate. The said fibrous sheet material willpreferably comprise absorbent paper such as, for example,

kraft paper, but itv may be of any other suitable form such as, for example, absorbent textile materials, wood veneer, asbestos, woven glass or other fibres, or a combination of two or more of these materials. However, Where the fibrous sheet material has a fibre structure running predominantly in one direction, the sheet material will preferably be used in such a way that the said predominating fibre direction will be at right angles to the lengths of the corrugations formed in the material when the same is converted. into corrugated plastic laminates.

The term consolidated is used herein in the sense in which it is normally employed in the plastics industry, namely to mean the result achieved by pressing, the thermo-setting resin impregnated sheets of a laminate assembly together whilst subjecting the assembly to heat which causes the flow of the resin in the sheets of the assembly and the ultimate curing of this resin to bond the compacted sheets in this condition.

According to a further feature of the invention, in or after pre-forming the fibrous sheet material to the said pleated or preliminarily c-orrugated form, the material is creased along parallel lines respectively centrally or substantially centrally of the crests andbases of the corrugations formed in the material thereby to impart an enduring setto the material along these lines, immediately adjoining creases so produced being spaced from one another by a distance (measured at right angles to the lengths of the creases and-along the-surfaceof the sheet) substantially equal to half the distance (measured in a similar manner) between the longitudinal centre lines of successive crests of the corrugated laminate to be produced.

By the expression "enduring set used herein is meant a creasing of the'fibrous pre-formed sheet material to such'an extent as will, ensure that this material will retain, with some degree of permanency, the corrugated form applied thereto without the naturalresilience of the material automatically causingthe latter to return to itsoriginalplanary form or .to a condition closely approximating to this original form, the said creasing yet not being of such. a nature as to mar, or to be substantially apparent in, th e final corrugated laminate to be produced from a plurality of pre-form'edjsheets. of such material.

The said fibrous sheet materal may be preformed by, for example, folding or pleating it concertina fashion, along parallel straightlines xt nd n n tudinall of he mat r a lslaid 

